Accused Ross Township shooter Rockne Newell was on a suicide mission Monday to assassinate officials he held responsible for taking his property.

HOWARD FRANK

Accused Ross Township shooter Rockne Newell was on a suicide mission Monday to assassinate officials he held responsible for taking his property.

And if it weren't for the heroic acts of three men, one who paid with his life, the death toll would have been higher, authorities said.

Newell, 59, is accused of leaving three dead and four wounded when he sprayed gunfire into a room where supervisors were holding their monthly public meeting at the Ross Township Municipal Building on Anchorage Road.

During a voluntary, spontaneous admission to police, Newell said he intended to shoot the township's supervisors, Howard A. Beers Jr., Russell A. Kresge Jr. and Tina Drake, along with the township's solicitor, John Dunn.

They all escaped serious injury. Newell said he didn't expect to survive the attack, according to court papers.

According to police and witnesses, at 7:19 p.m., Newell approached the township building armed with a Ruger Mini-14 rifle.

The Ruger rifle comes in four configurations, according to the company's website. The semi-automatic uses a .223-caliber round, a high-velocity, small-caliber round that's the same size ammo used in AR-15 and M-16 assault rifles. The Ruger comes with five- or 20-round magazines.

Police said 23 rounds were fired. Newell initially shot through an office into the meeting room and then went to side door and fired more rounds. He then retrieved a .44 Magnum revolver from a recently rented 2013 Chevrolet Impala.

A .44 Magnum round is a more powerful, souped-up .44 standard round with greater destructive power. It's best known as the rounds Clint Eastwood used in the Dirty Harry movies.

West End Parks and Recreation Director Bernie Kozen of Tobyhanna was tending to Chestnuthill Township supervisor Dave Fleetwood in the meeting room. Newell shot Fleetwood twice in the stomach after Fleetwood pushed a woman out of Newell's path during the shooter's first breach of the room.

As Newell approached the room for a second time, Kozen warned those still there that the shooter was coming back. Kozen positioned himself on the side of the door to the room and tackled Newell as he entered.

Kozen, with the help of resident Mark Kresh, wrestled Newell to the floor. Newell continued to fire rounds as the men struggled to restrain him.

Police said Newell was yelling, "You took my property, (expletive)!" During the scuffle, Newell was wounded in the leg by his own gun, ending the attack.

Newell fought with the township for almost two decades over open sewage, a large junk collection scattered in his yard and several non-permitted structures on the property where he lived.

The township finally condemned the property and sold it last month through a sheriff's sale, according to state police.

Newell's father told WFMZ-TV that his son had been talking about shooting township officials for a while and as recently as Monday.

Pete Newell said on the day of the shooting, his son told him he had no reason to live.

"It's no excuse for murder ... but they pushed him to his point," he said of the long battle to evict his son from the property.

Newell was taken to Pocono Medical Center for treatment. Newell reportedly made his admissions when police met him there. Newell also told police he specifically targeted the meeting because it was the only time he could get all of the township supervisors and the solicitor in a single location.

As Newell was being wheeled away to the ambulance, police said they heard him say, "I wish I killed more of them!"

One person was found dead in the building, one outside the building and a third died later at the Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Killed in the attack were Dave Fleetwood, 62; Gerard Kozic, 53; and James LaGuardia, 64, all of Saylorsburg.

Four people were wounded. They included Kozic's wife, Linda, who was shot in the leg; and Frank Piraino Jr., who was shot in the head. Piraino were treated at Pocono Medical Center on Monday night and released. Linda Kozic was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown.

An unnamed aide to state Rep. Rosemary Brown, who was at the meeting on behalf of Brown, was wounded by a bullet that grazed her arm, according to Brown. The aide was treated at the scene.

Beers sustained a hand wound and went to Pocono Medical Center on Tuesday morning for treatment. It wasn't clear how Beers sustained his wound.

The handgun Newell used was legally purchased, according to police. They are still tracing the ownership of the Ruger.

Police feared Newell's former Ross Township home might have been booby-trapped. So they brought a special unit from Hershey that used robots and bomb-sniffing dogs to check the property. No booby traps were found.

Since Newell was living in a home on Middle Easton Belmont Pike in Hamilton Township after being evicted from his Ross Township property, police were planning to search the Hamilton property after obtaining a search warrant.

Police said the shots Newell fired were fairly random and they do not believe anyone else was involved in the shootings.

Police are using a 3-D mapping program to create a diagram of the meeting room and the trajectories of the bullets fired.

Newell was charged with criminal homicide, criminal attempt of criminal homicide and aggravated assault. He is being held at the Monroe County Correctional Facility with no bail.

His only other entanglement with the law was a reckless endangerment charge in the 1980s, police said.

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